Snowstorm
by rivendellelve
Summary: ONESHOT The mission wasn't dangerous but the snowstorm they got into was... ShikaIno


Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto – if I did it would be called Sasuke **lol**

A/N: Hi! **waves**

Somehow I felt a bit bored and because I couldn't write something for my other ff's I decided to write a ShikaIno oneshot instead. And in two or three hours it was done… muhahahahahaaaaaaaa

Snowstorm

It was winter in Konoha and the most parts of the Fire Country were covered with snow although the snow wouldn't last long. Shikamaru was strolling through the streets of his village heading for the main gate where he would meet his team. Their mission was it to escort two cat-eyed siblings to their home in Snow Country. Shikamaru thought of it as definitely troublesome because in Konoha the snow was never a real problem but in Snow Country it would slow them down and trouble them in many other ways, too. When he arrived at the main gate he saw that his team was already there. Asuma was smoking and he nodded seeing Shikamaru, Chouji was munching chips not really noticing that the Nara had arrived but Ino smiled warmly at him. He shortly smiled back before Asuma gave the sign for the departure. As soon as they began their journey the brother of the cat-eyed twins, Nobuyaki, started walking beside Ino and tried not only to talk to her but also tried to flirt not noticing that Shikamaru had a very watchful eye on him.

Maybe Nobuyaki didn't notice anything but his sister, Reiko, did and walking beside Shikamaru she suggested grinning

"You should better do something before he steals your girlfriend."

Shikamaru flinched not having noticed Reiko before and answered a bit louder than he had intended to

"She's not my girlfriend! I would never have I girlfriend like that!"

Realizing what he just said he looked to Ino and unfortunately she had heard every single word. Looking hurt she went to the front of their group leaving Shikamaru behind. Following Ino Nobuyaki started talking to her again. Shikamaru tried to ignore him but somehow he failed and simply glared daggers at the brother.

Reiko giggled girlishly before saying "You should admit her your feelings before it's too late."

Then she went to her brother asking him something Shikamaru couldn't hear.

After one day they arrived at the borders of Snow Country where Reiko took a small scroll out of her bag and handed it to Asuma. He took it and then explained to his students.

"You already know that we have to get the two of them home safely but we also have to take this scroll to their grandmother who lives in another part of this country. Since it is faster if we separate two of us will take Reiko and Nobuyaki home while the other two will take this scroll to their grandmother."

A thought came to Shikamaru's mind: If he and Ino would take the scroll they would get rid of this annoying Nobuyaki so he said to Asuma

"Ino and I can take the scroll."

Asuma agreed and started explaining where they could find Reiko and Nobuyaki's grandmother although Nobuyaki seemed to be disappointed that Ino left. After ten minutes they were ready to go and quickly went away. Soon Ino and Shikamaru arrived at the grandmother's house and handed the scroll to the cat-eyed woman before they headed back to where they would meet their teammates again. The sun was already setting and it colored the snow red and orange. But despite the beautiful sight it grew quite cold as the night was nearing. Especially when it started snowing. Some snowflakes wouldn't have been a problem but after only a few minutes they were trapped in a snowstorm.

Ino tried to shield her eyes from those snowflakes because she could barely see anything with those annoying snowflakes that kept flying into her eyes. But if she shielded her eyes so that there were no snowflakes she couldn't see anything and so she couldn't follow Shikamaru, who was leading them, as well. The snow almost reached up to her waist so she had a hard time to keep moving through the snow. The blonde was sure that if it had snowed only a little harder they could've walked through the air. Suddenly she felt the ground beneath her breaking away and landed almost completely in freezing cold water. The icy cold took her breath away. But before she could get completely wet she jumped out of the water following Shikamaru, who was waiting for her. He hadn't seen what happened so he just thought she might've stumbled. The wind blew colder and stronger than before and even more snowflakes came falling from the sky so that they could barely see anything anymore. To prevent losing each other Shikamaru took Ino's dry right hand leading her through the snowstorm still not noticing that her clothes were soaking wet. Ino herself was just too aware of that fact: every single step was harder to take and she felt like every muscle in her whole body was frozen. She felt even too cold to shiver. Then Shikamaru found a cave where they would find at least a bit shelter from the snowstorm. Ino tried to smile but her lips didn't obey to her wishes and as she tried to take the next step her legs abandoned her too and she eventually broke down.

Seeing and feeling Ino breaking down Shikamaru caught her and carried her into that cave where he noticed that her clothes were soaking wet. If he hadn't had her in his arms he would've slapped himself for not noticing it earlier. But then again he didn't have the time for that. He had to get Ino out of this clothes before she grew even colder. After removing the wet clothes he put Ino his coat on and wrapped himself and his blonde teammate in his dry blanket since Ino's – as well as everything else in her bag – was wet. Then Shikamaru wanted to make a fire but soon he had to find out that the cave was too clammy to even think of fire. So instead of this he tried to wake Ino because it was dangerous - if she stayed sleeping she might never wake up again. Her called her name, gently nudged her, slightly shook her but nothing worked so he only could hug her tightly hoping to keep her warm this way and to keep himself warm he started pacing back and forth in the cave until he was too exhausted and tired and above all he was getting really worried since she didn't wake up yet.

With Ino still asleep in his arms and the snowstorm still raging outside he sat down on the ground recalling the events of the day. He remembered what he had said about Ino, remembering the hurt look on her face. He felt really sorry. He felt so sorry for that and for the fact that they were only trapped in this snowstorm with Ino's life in danger because he wanted to get her away from this Nobuyaki. Suddenly Reiko's words came back to his mind 'You should admit her your feelings before it's too late.'

He hugged Ino even tighter, the sentence still echoing through his mind, whispering

"Ino, I'm so sorry. Please don't die, don't leave me because… because I love you."

Just after he had said that he heard a silent "Shika" and lowered Ino a bit. Because of the cold she was pretty pale but nevertheless her cheeks were slightly flushed and looking into her ocean blue eyes Shikamaru found tears forming as Ino she clutched his shirt whispering

"I love you, too. But especially after what you've said this morning I thought you don't love me…"

Lowering her head she sobbed. Shikamaru was confused, he had never noticed that she had actually been in love with him but so he answered

"I have always loved you. I just couldn't tell."

She looked up to him again asking

"Really?"

He nodded and then pressed his lips against hers, kissing her and blushing a little, too.

"Was that proof enough?" He asked slightly smiling.

She nodded also smiling as she snuggled up to Shikamaru even closer and somehow the cold wasn't that cold anymore as they stayed there in the cave over the night where Asuma and Chouji found them half-asleep in the next morning with Shikamaru still holding Ino who was still clutching his shirt when the snowstorm had settled.

The end

A/N: So that was it. What do you think?

**disappears in a poof of smoke**


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